NME ARTISTS

Garbage

Biography

Garbage is an American-Scottish alternative rock band formed in Madison, Wisconsin, in 1993. The group consists of Scottish musician Shirley Manson (vocals, keyboards, guitar) and American musicians Duke Erikson (bass, guitar, keyboards), Steve Marker (guitar, keyboards), and Butch Vig (drums, percussion). All four members are involved in songwriting and production. The band have counted worldwide album sales of over 17 million units.

Garbage's debut album, Garbage, was critically acclaimed and an unexpected smash, selling over 4 million copies and certified double platinum in the UK, US, and Australia while accompanied by a string of increasingly successful singles in 1995-1996, including "Stupid Girl" and "Only Happy When It Rains". Follow-up Version 2.0, released in 1998 after a year of production, had an equal commercial success, topping the UK Albums Chart and getting nominations for two Grammy Awards. Garbage followed this up by performing and co-producing the theme song to the nineteenth James Bond movie The World Is Not Enough.

Despite critical acclaim, Garbage's 2001 third album Beautiful Garbage failed to match the commercial success achieved by its predecessors. Garbage quietly disbanded amidst the troubled production of fourth album Bleed Like Me, but ultimately regrouped to complete the album, which was released in 2005 and peaked at a career-high No. 4 in the US. The band cut short their concert tour in support of Bleed Like Me announcing an "indefinite hiatus", emphasizing that they had not broken up, but wished to pursue personal interests. The hiatus was briefly interrupted in 2007, as Garbage recorded new tracks for greatest hits retrospective Absolute Garbage. Garbage ultimately regrouped in 2011, and released fifth album Not Your Kind of People in 2012 via the band's own independent label, Stunvolume Records.